One Best Thing Review
Literature Circles with iPad: Collaborative Reading
Author: David Caleb
Lesson designed for: 4th-12th Grade
David Caleb wrote the ebook Literature Circles with IPad: Collaborative Reading. He is an international Elementary Education teacher in South East Asia. He has combined his talents and passions to write instructional ebooks to help other educators learn about how to use technology in the classroom. David is a well distinguished educator and has co authored other ebooks and has attended many conferences. David is passionate about technology in the classroom and hopes to inspire other teachers to use more technology in the classroom. Literature Circles with IPad can be found here. I chose to review Literature Circles with IPad because I have a passion for literature and I want to discover new ways to help my students learn about literature and get the most out of it. My area of concentration is in English and I love to read from authors who are also passionate about literature in the classroom and David Caleb is very passionate about incorporating literature in his classrooms through literature Circles. The iPad is a wonderful tool for students to read ebooks on, take notes, and highlight important information. David Caleb recommends using iPads in the classroom to help support a literature circle group and I also think it would be a great tool to share with my students. A literature circle is a group of students getting together to discuss the same piece of literature. This greatly enhances the content of the literature because the students are receiving a deeper understanding of what they are reading and learning from their peers and are able to clarify questions and discuss what they loved and disliked about the book. David shares different stategies that worked for his literature Circles. The way David sets up his Literature Circles is well designed. He has each student vote which book they prefer to read out of the list of choices and organizes the groups based on common book interest. After he sets up group of five or six students in each group he tells the students they will need to stick to a reading schedule and they will not be allowed to read ahead. Then he tells the students they will each receive a reading role card. The role cards are discussion director, word wizard, connector, passage master, and illustrator. Each student has a role and focuses on the important factors of each role card and uses it as a tool for reading and adding to the group discussion. Below in the slideshow are the descriptions for each role card. |
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These role cards are designed to maximize student learning. I love that each student has a role in the group discussion. This helps especially with students who have never been in a literature circle before. The teacher can help guide the students during the first few Literature Circles and show them how the role cards should be completed properly. After a few Literature circles the students will get the hang of it and the teacher can still listen in and act as a guide but the students will be the ones leading the discussion.
I love this idea of using literature Circles in the classroom because it is a great way to keep students reading on track and actively sharing in their discussion. Each role card really helps maximize different learning styles and important factors of literature. I also think this a great opportunity for students to lead discussions and the teacher is able to asses how much the students are learning an participating by listening in on the literature Circles. I look forward to using this idea in my classroom someday. I plan to take David's suggestions of using the role cards as a tool for the Circles. I think it would be great to give the students choice and let each student have a chance to use each role card.
I love this idea of using literature Circles in the classroom because it is a great way to keep students reading on track and actively sharing in their discussion. Each role card really helps maximize different learning styles and important factors of literature. I also think this a great opportunity for students to lead discussions and the teacher is able to asses how much the students are learning an participating by listening in on the literature Circles. I look forward to using this idea in my classroom someday. I plan to take David's suggestions of using the role cards as a tool for the Circles. I think it would be great to give the students choice and let each student have a chance to use each role card.